Setting Goals

Achieve weight loss success

Setting goals is a very important step in your weight loss success.

Once you set a goal, your conscious (your brain) and subconscious mind will strive to accomplish it. And once you start accomplishing your goals, your motivation soars and nothing can stop you!

Let's go over some very important points when it comes to setting goals.

The first step in the process is to decide on your goal and write it down in your goal journal.

By writing it down, you are increasing the chances of accomplishing it. Your subconscious mind will work on it harder.

Rules for Writing your Goals

How exactly do you write them down? There are some rules to follow.

• Be as specific as you can. Decide exactly how much you're going to weigh when you accomplish your goal. Don't be vague, as it will only bring you vague results that you won't be able to measure.

• Use strong, positive statements. State your goal in the present. Never use "I want to...". It is a "wishful thinking" statement that will get you nowhere. Use "I am", "I have" or "I will" instead.

• Specify when you want to accomplish your goal. Again, be as specific as you can. State the day, month and the year. When you fail to set the time frame for your goal, your subconscious mind will not understand how urgent your goal is, and it will take its time to produce desired results.

• Be realistic. You have to believe you can accomplish a goal. If you do not believe you can do something, then more than likely it will not happen. For example if you decide to lose 40 lbs., you might not believe that you can do it, so you might want to break that down over the period of few goals.

  Start with 5 lbs. in a month. If you succeed with 5 lbs. your self esteem will soar and you will be more likely to lose more weight next time.

Sample Goal Writing

Let’s write a goal together.

I want to lose weight…

But that's very vague. So let's be more specific... I need to specify exactly how much weight I want to lose.

So I step on the scale and discover that I weigh 170 pounds. But my healthy weight is 130 pounds. That means I need to lose 40 pounds. But that's a lot. I have a problem with believing I can do that.

So I decide I will break down my goal in a few steps. To begin with I decide I want to lose 8 lbs in a month. This sounds a lot more realistic to me than losing 40 lbs.

I can do it!

So if I loose 8 lbs my weight will be 162 lbs. Today is Nov. 10 2007 and I want to have it accomplished in a month, so Dec. 10, 2007.

My goal will look like this:

My weight is 162 lbs by Dec.10 2007.

Or

I will weigh 162 lbs by Dec. 10, 2007

Ways of Accomplishing your Goals

So we have our goal, we wrote it down and now it's time to decide how we will accomplish it.

Think of things that will help you achieve your goal.

Do you need to exercise? How often? What kind of exercise?

Do you need to eat less? Will you skip the dessert? Will you eliminate sugar from you diet?

Once you decide on the specific things you will do to accomplish your goal, write them down just below your main goal..

I will achieve this goal by:

• Exercising 3 times a week for 45 minutes at a time in the gym.

• I will take the stairs to my office on the 20th floor once a day, Mon-Fri

• I will take the dog for a brisk walk every day before and after work.

• I will use the TV commercials to do lunges, squats and calf raises.

• Etc., etc.

Again, be creative and specific.

So now we have a very specific goal, and creative but realistic ways that will get us there.

Visualizing Your Goals

The next step in losing weight process is visualizing our goal and the ways that will get us to our goal.

Visualizing unleashes the creative power of your subconscious mind and creates motivation. You will find yourself doing things that bring you closer to your goal with ease and enthusiasm.

When you visualize your goal, make it very vivid and detailed. See the calendar with the desired date, see yourself stepping on the scale, see the scale read out your goal weight, see yourself jumping up and down for joy.

Then see yourself doing things that got you to your goal. Clearly see yourself exercising or whatever you decided will get you to your goal. Make sure you are feeling the enjoyment and satisfaction, which this action brings you.

Dealing with Negative Feelings

What about those little annoying negative thoughts and feelings that creep in when you think of, or visualize your goal? They sure interfere when you're trying to lose weight!

Do you hear you mind telling you: You can't do it! There is no way it will happen! You have never accomplished anything, what makes you think, you can do this??

We all have those pesky, negative and destructive feelings, so how do we deal with them, before they destroy our goals?

It may shock you, but I found that the best way to deal with negative feelings, it's to welcome them, embrace them and then let them go!

Do not resist them. Resisting will not get rid of them. It will only make them stronger and more destructive. You just can't make your feelings disappear, so instead acknowledge them, and then, only then let them go.

I personally use my imagination, and imagine my negative feeling as an ugly creature. I see myself opening my arms and giving the creature a big hug. You can say "I accept the feeling of doubt" as you do that. And then make a conscious decision to let the feeling go. So I see myself letting go of the embrace, and the creature is walking away. You can say "I allow myself to let go of the feeling of doubt " or whatever other feeling you're feeling.

You can imagine your feelings as anything you wish, it doesn't matter as long as you find an effective way to let them go.

Daily Maintenance

You are now definitely on your way to losing weight and getting healthy.

But setting goals, reading and visualizing them once, is not enough.

You need to do it everyday at least once a day, and even better twice or three times a day.

So take out your goal journal, read your goals, visualize them, and allow yourself to welcome and let go of the negative feelings. If you do that every day, you will not fail.